Slave Trade

Review by Little Blue for Voices from Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives
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Unlike historians interpreting the lives and conditions of American slaves, those in bondage tell their own stories and allow readers to judge for themselves the South’s “Peculiar Institution.” This book interviews slaves who lived on plantations throughout the slave-holding states. Subjects discussed range from living conditions, to relationships, to emancipation. How did slaves see their owners? What was their reaction when Federal soldiers marched onto their plantations and announced they were free? Once the shackles of slavery were thrown off, what did the former slaves do? Not in any other work will someone find a more compact and sweeping first-hand account of life as a slave in the years leading up to, into, and beyond the American Civil War.

Review by Robert W. Kellemen for Voices from Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives
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Norman Yetman has done every researcher of African American history a great service by his splendid compilation in “Voice from Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives.” Yetman used a precise formula for inclusion and/or exclusion in order to compile these 100 narratives out of more than 3000 interviews performed by the WPA in the 1930s. They are clearly representative of the entire 3000, while at the same time of greater length and providing more detail than the 2900 others.

Here the reader hears first-hand the voices of the ex-enslaved African American–telling his or her story with startling imagery and amazing detail. This is a one-of-a-kind collection well worth buying, reading, and re-reading.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of “Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.” He has also authored “Soul Physicians,” “Spiritual Friends,” and the forthcoming “Sacred Friendships: Listening to the Voices of Women Soul Care-Givers and Spiritual Directors.”

Review by Thomas Reynolds for Voices from Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives
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Importantly, this is an “easy” read. Since it is a compilation of stories told by people who had been slaves, it is not full of theory or the writing of historians demonstrating their ability to use obscure words. It is obviously all the more powerful and interesting as a result. If you know people and how to read between the lines, you walk away from this book with an understanding of just how complex slavery was and how different the treatment of slaves based simply on who was the slave owner. The author tried to balance selections, but I am suspicious of how balanced these accounts can be since I assume the slaves treated the worst were less likely to survive into their 80s and 90s, the ages of slaves interviewed. Nevertheless, it seems like a full range of individual experience is shown even if possibly not in proportion. I have seen filmed interviews and read the stories of concentration camp survivors. To me, the tales told in this book comes the closest to that learning experience in terms of understanding what slavery was like for the slaves.

Review by J.K for Voices from Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives
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This book is probably one of the best I’ve read.

To learn about slavery from those who went through it is incredibly worthwile because it ensures we do not make the mistakes of the past.

The narratives are so powerful they bring you back to that time. For some of the people interviewed in this book being a slave wasn’t as horrible as it was for others, but all of the narratives in this book have a common thread–freedom. They did not take their newfound freedom for granted; as we do now.

Review by nairam for Voices from Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives
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This is a must read for anyone interested in the foundaton of this country. It is a validaton of the ravages of slavery from the voices of those who were born into it. It demonstrates how far African Americans have come through faith, education and family after the systematic attempt to destroy the human spirit of many of those responsible for building this nation.

It is an outstanding work of the WPA and one of its projects. These narratives are, along with many more, in the United States National Archives. However, Norman Yetman includes more than fifty important additonal pages of introduction, background information and other important details that make this collection invaluable.

The powerful photographs take you into some of the lives of other slaves, allowing them to speak visually.